An employee of Doctors Without Borders walks inside the charred remains of their hospital after it was hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Friday.

Christopher Stokes, the general director of medical charity Doctors Without Borders, which is also known by its French abbreviation MSF, stands at the gate of the organization's hospital on Thursday, after it was hit by a U.S. airstrike, in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

Sound

The gallery will resume inseconds

Afghan employees of a Doctors Without Borders hospital move debris of its damaged gate in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Thursday.

U.S. soldiers walk into the charred remains of the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan on Thursday.

The charred remains of the Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen after being hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Wednesday.

The charred remains of the Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen after being hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Wednesday.

The charred remains of the Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen after being hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Friday.

The charred remains of the Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen after being hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Friday.

An employee of Doctors Without Borders stands inside the charred remains of their hospital after it was hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Friday.

Christopher Stokes, the general director of the medical charity, Doctors Without Borders, which is also known by its French abbreviation MSF, stands amid the charred remains of the organization's hospital on Friday, after it was hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Stokes says the “extensive, quite precise destruction” of the bombing raid casts doubt on American military assertions that it was a mistake.

An employee of the Doctors Without Borders walks inside the charred remains of their hospital after it was hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Friday.

The charred remains of the Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen after being hit by a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Friday.

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan – The head of an international medical charity whose hospital in northern Afghanistan was destroyed in a U.S. airstrike says the “extensive, quite precise destruction” of the bombing raid casts doubt on American military assertions that it was a mistake.

The Oct. 3 attack on the compound in Kunduz city, which killed at least 22 patients and hospital staff, should be investigated as a possible war crime, said Christopher Stokes, general director of Doctors Without Borders, which is also known by its French abbreviation MSF.

The trauma hospital was bombed during a firefight between Taliban and government troops, as U.S. advisers were helping Afghan forces retake the city after the insurgents overran it and seized control on Sept. 28. Afghan authorities say they are now largely back in control of Kunduz.

U.S. President Barack Obama has apologized for the attack, and the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, Gen. John F. Campbell, said it was a mistake. He said the strike had been called in by Afghan forces, but has not explained exactly how it happened or who granted final approval. Internal military investigations are underway, with preliminary results expected in coming days.

According to Associated Press reporting, American special operations analysts were scrutinizing the Afghan hospital days before it was destroyed because they believed it was being used by a Pakistani operative to coordinate Taliban activity.

“The hospital was repeatedly hit both at the front and the rear and extensively destroyed and damaged, even though we have provided all the coordinates and all the right information to all the parties in the conflict,” Stokes said, standing in the burned-out main hospital building.

“The extensive, quite precise destruction of this hospital … doesn’t indicate a mistake. The hospital was repeatedly hit,” Stokes said. The bombing went on for more than an hour, despite calls to Afghan, U.S. and NATO to call if off, MSF has said.